Four of England’s Open netball squad which completed a 3-0 series win over Malawi last week, together with the squad’s three training partners, have been named today (21 April) in the England U21 long squad which is now preparing for next year’s World Youth Netball Championships in the Cook Islands.
Eboni Beckford Chambers, Sasha Corbin, Serena Guthrie and Jo Harten were all part of the 12 player England squad which defeated world number five Malawi, while Kirsty Delves, Lindsay Keable and Monique Wood spent the week training with the Open squad and building up their international experience.
“The road to the Cook Islands starts here,” says Nigel Holl, England Netball’s Director of Netball, “and it is very encouraging that so many of the U21 long squad already have experience of international netball at the very highest level, as well as playing regularly in the Co-operative Netball Superleague. England is aiming to go one better than the last World Youth Championships, when we were runners up, and in order to achieve this, we need to ensure that our young athletes have as much exposure to high level competition as possible in the coming months.
“The selectors will be monitoring their performances closely, both at training and in the Co-operative Netball Superleague, as well as on England tours and in matches, to ensure that the final squad selected for the Cook Islands is as competitive as it can be.”
The 25 players named in the England U21 long squad are:
Rosie Allison, Eboni Beckford-Chambers, Danni Bloomfield, Sophia Candappa, Ella Clarke, Sasha Corbin, Courtney Cummins, Kirsty Delves, Stacey Francis, Layla Guscoth, Serena Guthrie, Natasha Hampshire, Jo Harten, Lindsay Keable, Alex Kirk, Michaela McFarlane, Sam Perry (subject to fitness), Alex Sinclair (subject to fitness), Sarah Jane O’Sullivan, Katie Rose (subject to fitness), Abigail Ryan, Jo Walker, Scarlett Williams, Monique Wood, Darcie Worsdale,
England’s selectors will name a touring party to travel to Australia during the summer for a series of practice matches before the squad returns to training in the autumn. The World Youth Championships are scheduled to take place in the Cook Islands in July 2009.
